Warframe To Get PS4 Pro, HDR, DX12/Vulkan Support but no Crossplay

Digital Extremes recently released Warframe’s latest content update, The War Within, on PC and consoles. With the free-to-play game about to enter its fourth year, we had a long chat with Studio Manager Sheldon Carter about the future updates and fixes that Digital Extremes is preparing for Warframe.

We’ll begin today by taking a look at the latest technologies and their upcoming implementation/support in Warframe.

You said that HDR support is being worked on for Xbox One S. Will it be available on PS4 and PC, too? Also, which graphics elements do you think HDR particularly highlights in Warframe?

Our work on getting HDR support for the Xbox One S is going to pave the way for PlayStation 4 and PC as well. There’s not a lot I can say since it’s still in its early stages, but it will allow for wider brightness and colour ranges. This will help bring out the details in brighter areas, as well as adding richer, deeper shadows.

Are you going to support Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro anytime soon? If so, can you detail the planned enhancements (resolution, textures etc.) for us?

Warframe currently offers base support for PS4 Pro. Essentially, because of the PS4 Pro’s beefier hardware, Warframe runs better currently without any additional work from our side. However, we are planning to take advantage of what the PS4 Pro offers in an official way in 2017. So yeah, I personally am looking forward to seeing how badass Warframe will look using the PlayStation 4 Pro’s tech.”

Do you have any plans to add DirectX 12 and/or Vulkan support on PC?

We do, but without a specific timeline. Our current bottlenecks mean we’re focusing elsewhere for the time being (animation and AI threading), but we’re excited about the gains other titles have made! Doom rips and tears on Vulkan!

I’m sure you get this question a lot, but with more and more games supporting cross-play, it’s worth asking once more. Are you still considering any form of cross-play (PC/XB1, PC/PS4, PS4/XB1 or even across all platforms) or is it permanently off the table?

Cross-play requires all platforms to be updated simultaneously, which is not what our development schedule allows for at the moment. Given the extra balancing passes needed to make this functionality fair for all platforms and the delay in releasing content that would be necessary for simultaneous updates, I unfortunately don’t see Warframe cross-play existing in the foreseeable future.

Check back tomorrow for our full interview, including many balance and gameplay related answers straight from the dev team.